Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today, at an appeals court hearing in Paris, that he is innocent of the accusations that Libya financed his 2007 election campaign, the Associated Press reported, BTA reported.
"I owe the French people the truth", Sarkozy told a three-member panel of judges. "I am innocent," he said.
Sarkozy, 71, is appealing his conviction in September, when he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and sentenced to five years in prison for his alleged involvement in a scheme to obtain funds from the government of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy has consistently denied any wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.
Today's hearing focuses on Sarkozy's role as a presidential candidate and then as president from 2007 to 2012. The appeals case, which began last month, will review all evidence and testimony related to him and the other nine defendants in the trial, including three former ministers.
Sarkozy stressed that he took the initiative for Western military intervention in Libya in 2011, after the Gaddafi regime began to harshly repress anti-government demonstrators.
"I took the initiative, France took the initiative. Why? Because Gaddafi had no influence on me - financially, politically or personally," Sarkozy said.
Muammar Gaddafi was killed by opposition fighters in October 2011, thus ending his four-decade rule in Libya.